ספר שמות

Let us also examine the question posed by Rabbi ‎Moshe Alshich, why rainfall did occur on the Sabbath, ‎whereas the manna did not descend on the Sabbath? ‎One of the basic differences between rain and manna is ‎that in connection with rainfall man did not have to ‎involve his brainpower, whereas manna had to ‎measured according to the number of persons in each ‎household. The very amount of manna that descended ‎for each person is described as one “omer” ‎per “head,” regardless of the age or size of the body ‎attached to that head. According to our tradition that ‎the manna would acquire the taste of whatever the ‎person consuming it desired, this too required ‎involvement of the recipient’s thought processes. The ‎absence of manna on the Sabbath therefore relieved ‎each Israelite from the need of concerning himself with ‎mundane matters such as the ones described. No such ‎considerations are necessary in connection with ‎rainfall, so that man was not diverted from spiritually ‎oriented activities regardless of whether rain ‎descended or not. This answers the Alshich’s question.‎[It is not clear to me whence the Alshich ‎concludes that rain descended on the Israelites’ camp ‎in the desert. What did they need it for? Ed.]‎Let us revert to the first question, why, in spite of ‎the differences between the festival days and the ‎Sabbath, on occasion the Torah nonetheless refers to a ‎festival also as a Sabbath? (Leviticus 23,15) On the ‎original Passover G’d performed so many miracles for ‎the Jewish people, even though they had not qualified ‎for this by their performing the commandments ‎pertaining to festivals, that by referring to Passover ‎also as (merely) ‎‏ מקרא קודש‎ the Torah makes it clear that ‎the term ‎שבת‎ in connection with Passover refers merely ‎to G’d’s initiatives on that day, not to Israel’s.‎‎